Page 65 of Mace

“I’ve wanted to do that from the moment I laid eyes on you.”

My gaze snaps up of its own volition, and I’m sure I’m wearing a goofy look on my face. “You have?” I don’t think anyone has ever wanted to kiss me. “Why?” The word blurts out before I can stop it.

He frowns at me. “You’re beautiful, Maylie, inside and out. You’re too fuckin’ good for any man.” His hands cupmy face and heat spirals through my body as my gaze is forced to meet his. “I want to kiss you again.”

I should say no, I should tell him that my chaotic life means at some point I’ll be leaving Birmingham, but I want him to kiss me again. I want to have this moment of normality. I want to be the girl who gets the guy, even if it’s just this once.

I peer up at him, both enthralled and afraid of the way he’s looking at me. It’s a look that says he has zero intention of letting me walk away from him again… but that won’t be his decision.

“Okay,” I murmur, uncaring that we’re in the middle of the street and people are seeing this tall, incredibly hot biker kissing me.

His hand still wrapped around the back of my neck, his mouth locks to mine, brushing softly over my lips. My heart leaps, and my body warms from the inside out.

Even if I don’t get to date again until my brother is eighteen, I will replay this moment over and over in my head for the rest of my life.

He pulls back with a reluctance I don’t expect. My lungs heave with the exertion of our make-out session, and every cell in my body feels alive. Disappointment slides through me because I know this can’t be a repeat performance.

Just because of that fact, I risk placing my hands against his chest, feeling the hard edges of his sculpted muscles beneath my palms. His shirt does little to disguise that the man is built.

“Thank you.”

His eyebrows draw together. “I don’t think anyone’s ever thanked me for kissing them. And you don’t have tothank me. It was just as fuckin’ enjoyable for me, and I plan on doing this at every opportunity.”

He leans forward as if he’s going to claim my mouth again, but I move back, which heightens the frown.

“Did I misread the situation?” he asks. There is no censure in his words, but he seems upset that he might have done something that perhaps I didn’t want.

“No. That was the single best moment of my life, Mace, but it can’t happen again.”

The lines on his forehead deepen. “I’m a little lost, sweetheart.”

I can’t blame him for that. I’m not sure I’m making sense. “This is a ‘me’ problem, not a ‘you’ problem. And at any other time, this would’ve been everything I wanted and more, but my life is so messy right now, Mace. I need to concentrate on that.”

His head tilts to the side, and I get distracted by the ink on his neck. “Messy how?”

This is not something I want to get into with him. He doesn’t deserve to be drawn into the dangerous shit I’m facing. “You just have to trust me on that.”

“I’ll walk you back.”

“You don’t have to.”

“My bike’s outside your place.”

Of course, it is. How did I forget that? “Oh. Then I guess it makes sense for us to walk together.”

I fall in beside him as we turn back in the direction of the flat. For a moment, he says nothing, then he speaks. “You know, I can help you with whatever is going on, right?”

He says that, but he has no idea just how dangerousLink is. My arm burns beneath my sleeve, reminding me of the way he—and Ivy—had both attacked me.

“I know, but I have it handled.”

It’s an outright lie, but I tell it anyway.

As we approach the flat, my stomach sinks. In a moment, the dream I just experienced will fade and normal life will resume. I’m not sure I want to go back to that, but what choice do I have?

“Thank you for breakfast.”

He stops walking, and I do the same, waiting as he seems to gather his thoughts. I’m not sure what he’s going to say, but he blows out a breath. “I’ll see you at work.”

---